ASPCS
 
Back to Volume
Paper: Investigating Opacity Modifications and Reaction Rate Uncertainties to Resolve the Cepheid Mass Discrepancy
Volume: 529, RR Lyrae/Cepheid 2019: Frontiers of Classical Pulsators
Page: 79
Authors: Guzik, J. A.; Farag, E.; Ostrowski, J.; Evans, N. R.; Neilson, H.; Moschou, S.; Drake, J. J.
Abstract: Cepheid masses derived from pulsations or binary dynamics are generally lower than those derived from stellar evolution models. Recent efforts have been dedicated to investigating the effects of abundances, mass loss, rotation, convection and overshooting prescriptions for modifying the evolution tracks to reduce or remove this Cepheid mass discrepancy. While these approaches are promising, either alone or in combination, more work is required to distinguish between possible solutions. Here we investigate nuclear reaction rate and opacity modifications on Cepheid evolution using the MESA code. We discuss the effects of opacity increases at envelope temperatures of 200,000–400,000 K proposed to explain the pulsation properties of main-sequence β Cep/SPB variables which will evolve into Cepheids. We make use of the RSP nonlinear radial pulsation modeling capability in MESA to calculate periods and radial velocity amplitudes of Galactic Cepheids V1334 Cyg, Polaris, and δ Cep.
Back to Volume